Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-09-17
% EH "
i HISTORY OF ADVENTURE
BY Fl. RIDER HAGGARD.

whom, had l not been afraid she might re-
sent it, / would certainly have given a kiss
for her splendid behavior in saving my
dear boys life ut the risk of her own. But
Ustane was not the sort Of young person
with whom one would care to take liber-
ties unless one were perfectly certain that
they would not be misunderstood, SO | re-
pressed my inclinations. Then. bruised
and battered, but with a sense OF safety in
my breast to which l had for some days
been a stranger, / crept OF to my own lit
tie sepulcher not forgetting before / laid
down in it to thank God from the bottom
OF my heart that it was not a sepuicher in
deed, as, were it not for a merciful combi-
nation of events, that / can only attribute
to Him, it would certainly have been for
me that night. Few men nave been nearer
their end and yet escaped it than we were
on that dreadful day.
My dreams that night when at last | got
to sleep We're not Of the pleasantest. The
awful vision of poor Mahomed struggling
to escape the rcd-hot pot would haunt
them, and then in the background, as 1T
were, a yelled form was always lowering,
which, from time to time, seemed to draw
the coverings from its body, revealing now
the perfect shape Of a lovely blooming
woman, and now again the white bones OF
a grinning skeleton, and which, asst yelled
and unveiled, uttered the mysterious and
apparently meaningless sentences:
THAT which is alive hath known death,
and that which is dead yet can never die,
for in the Circle of the Spirit life is naught
and death is naught. Yea, all things live
forever, though at times they sleep and are
forgotten"
The morning came at last, but when it
came | found that | was too stiff and sore
to rise. About seven job arrived, limping
terribly, and with his face the color OF n
rotten apple, and told me that Leo had
slept fairly, but was very weak. Two
hours after Billali dob called him BILLY
goat" to which, indeed, his white beard
gave him some resemblance, or, more
familiarly, 'Billy') came too, bearing a
lamp in his hand. his towering form reach
ing nearly TO the roof Of the little chamber.
| pretended to be asleep, and through the
cracks of eyelids, watched his sardonic
but handsome Old face. He fixed his
hawk-like eyes upon me, and stroked his
glorious white beard, which, by the way,
would have been worth a hundred a year
to any London barber as an advertisement.
Ah!' | heard him mutter (Billali had n
habit of muttering to himself), "he Is ugly
ugly rs the other is beautiful-a very Ba-
boon; it was a good name. But ! like the
man. Strange, now at my age, thai ]
should like "A man. What says the pro-
yerb?-'Mistrust all men, and Stay him
whom thou mistrustest ~overmuch; and AS
for women, flee thou from them, for they
are evil, and in the end Will destroy thee
II is IA good proverb, especially the last
part: | think il must have come down from
the ancients. Nevertheless | like this
Baboon and | wonder where they taught
him his tricks, and | trust that she viii
not bewitch him. Poor Baboon! he must
be wearied after that fight. | will go lest
should awake him"
waited till he had turned, and was
nearly through the entrance, walking soft
ly on tiptoe, and then ] called after him.
"My father | said, lis it thou;"
Eyes. my son, it is !; but let me not dis
turb thee. didst but come to see how
thou didst fare, and to tell thee that those
who would nave slain thee, my Baboon,
are by now we'll on their road to She. She
said that We were to come also at once, but
/ fear We can not yet"
'Nay." said, not till we have recov-
cred a little; but have me borne out into
the daylight, | pray thee, my father, | like
not this place"
"Ah, no." he answered.; sit hath a sad
air. ! remember when | was a boy found
the body Of n fair woman lying where you
lie now. yes, on that very bench. She was
so beautiful that | used to creep in here
with a lamp and gaze upon her. Had it
not been for her cold hands, almost could
I think that she slept, and would one day
awake. SO fair and peaceful was she in her
robe Of white. White was she, too, and
her hair was yellow, and lay down her al.
most to the feet. There are many such
still in the tombs at the place where she
is, for those who set them there had a way
I know naught of, of keeping their beloved
out of the crumbling hand of Decay, even
when Death had slain them. Ay, day 10y
day | came hither, and gazed on her, Till al
last-laugh not at me, stranger, for l was
but a silly lad learned 70 love that dead
form, that shell that once had held a life
that no more is. would creep up TO hei
and kiss her cold face, and wonder how
many men had lived and died since she
was, and who had loved her and embraced
her in the days that long had passed away
And, my Baboon. l think | learned wisdom
from that lead one, for of a truth it laugh
me Of the littleness Of life, and the lengtf
of Death, and how all things that are un'
der the sun 60 down one path, and are FOR
ever forgotten. And so | unused, and II
seemed to me that wisdom flowed into me
from that dead one, till one day my mother
a watchful woman, but hasty-minded, see
ing l was changed, followed me, and sa"
the beautiful white one, and feared ] wal
bewitched, as, indeed, / was. So hall IL
fear, and half in anger. she took the lamp
and standing the dead one up against tht
wall there, set fire to her hair, ana sh'
burned fiercely, even down to the feet, TO
those who are thus kept burn exceedingl!
well. See, my son, there on the roof is We
the smoke of her burning"
looked up d~oubtfully, and there, sur
enough, on the roof OF the sepulcher was
peculiarly unctuous and sooty mark, three
feet or more across. Doubtless it had II
the course Of years been rubbed OH I'M
sides of the little cave, but on the ROOF l
remained, and there was no mistaklng II
appearance. 80,
'She burned" he went on, in a medita
tive way, "even 10 the feet, but the feet
came back and saved, cutting the burne'
bone from them, and hid them under Tn
stone bench there, wrapped up in a pee
OF linen. Surely, I remember it as thong'
it Were but yesterday. Perchance they ar